


Marissa and the Bookshop

by Megnog



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24312310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megnog/pseuds/Megnog
Summary: A lonely student studying abroad in London discovers A.Z. Fell & Co. Sometimes when you're down, all you need is an angel and a demon, especially when they need you as well.
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the lovely @froot_snak

Marissa was having a bad day. Most of the days had been bad since she moved to London to study abroad for a year. She was supposed to be having fun, making new friends, soaking in the magic of a foreign city, but she was homesick and lonely and stressed out from school. Did she make a big mistake coming here? Her best friend, her only friend, was back home and was probably having the time of his life without her. It had been a week since he called or picked up his phone. Everything felt...Off. Pointless. Cold.

As she wandered the streets of Soho one autumn afternoon, her knapsack suddenly felt too heavy to carry another step. She looked around for a place to sit down, and couldn’t believe her luck. There in front of her was a bookshop directly out of the 19th century. It radiated a welcoming warmth she hadn’t felt in a while, unlike the shop next door that sold ‘intimate books.’ Hesitantly, the beleaguered student entered A.Z. Fell & Co. Did she even belong in such an enchanting place? There were no other patrons, and the owner didn’t seem to be in…

“I told you to GO AWAY you foul fiend! I am so VERY busy!” Marissa’s heart plummeted to her stomach, and her stomach bottomed out with terror. The owner of the booming, angry voice came from somewhere in the back, but he might as well be standing next to her. Her own voice sounded small and pathetic when she found it.

“I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t…”

“OH! My dear, my most profound apologies!” Mr. Fell blustered out of the back room, and out of whichever Charles Dickens book he normally inhabited. He set aside a pile of books beside an ancient cash register with his soft, cherubic face comically aghast at his terrible mistake. Awkwardly offering a sunny smile and straightening his waistcoat, he hurried to make amends.

“You are most definitely not the, uh, person I thought you were. I hope you can forgive me, please, what can I help you with?”

Marissa couldn’t help but giggle at the poor man. It felt good to have a little laugh after feeling miserable for so long.

“I just needed to rest for a bit, I’m sorry, I don’t intend to buy anything…”

“Splendid! Do make yourself comfortable, and I’ll be out with tea and cake in two shakes of a lamb’s tail."

“Oh, no, I’m not very hungry, but thank you ---”

“Nonsense! You’re skin and bone and what sort of student turns down free cake? I insist, be back in a jiffy.”

There seemed to be no point in arguing with this strange fellow as he gently guided her to the comfiest chair in the shop. Good strange, though. She felt oddly safe here about to eat free cake from a stranger dressed like he was attending a steampunk convention. It was hard for her to imagine anyone could make someone so warm and amenable upset enough to shout the way he did. What were they like?

When Mr. Fell came back with a tray full of treats, something above Marissa caught his eye. His smile vanished and eyes widened in horror at the very ill-timed intrusion. He liked Marissa. He could sense love all around her, and would sell her a book if she changed her mind which was saying a lot for him. The tray crashed to the floor, and he gently yet firmly pulled Marissa out of the chair and away from whatever was behind her on the bookshelf, casting a protective arm around her as he brandished a finger at a very large red and black snake.

“Go away you FOUL FIEND!! I have company, and I told you to leave me alone, I am not helping you!”

So she was mistaken for a snake when she entered the shop? It happens. Was she in some British reality prank show that preyed on foreigners? Trembling, she held onto Mr. Fell as if her life depended on it, and it probably did, because the snake lunged at her, baring its venomous fangs.


	2. Chapter 2

One second a snake was shooting through the air, the next a lanky, ginger-haired man stood where it should have landed. How someone this devil-may-care in everything from his mannerisms and fashion sense knew the owner of this bookshop or any bookshop was a mystery. For extra shock and confusion, Mr. Fell admonished the Snake Man as if he deliberately smashed a Ming vase, or something almost normal. Marissa still clung to him like a giant teddy bear, on the verge of tears.

“If this is payback, I will not stand for it, and I am definitely not getting you more, uh, battery acid.” He tried to keep this conversation as sane for a human as possible, but Crowley didn’t see the point unless the girl was blind. 

“I can’t believe you’d even ask after all we managed to thwart --”

“Like I said, angel, it’s NOT OVER YET. What if they put two-and-two together? It’s been known to happen. They still want their war and they want us out of the way. For you to deny me some protection...Well, I guess it was true what you said in the gazebo you holier-than-thou-bastard.”

Mr. Fell sheepishly looked down at the floor. What were they talking about? Marissa thought maybe she should take this cue to leave, give these two some privacy. They had to be some sort of couple, Snake Man called him an angel, but how could she concentrate on studying this evening without more information? And a sedative.

Giving her a gentle squeeze before extricating his arm from her grip, he tried to explain...

He couldn’t. It would be too much. 

“I am so sorry, my dear, for...Everything. I think it’s best I, take care of it, and you be on your merry way. So very sorry it had to be this way, I wish you all the best,” the angel stopped wringing his hands, and raised one to snap his fingers in front of the girl’s eyes before she could object.

***

Marissa suddenly felt peaceful and well-rested before she found a place to sit down. Walking past A.Z. Fell & Co. with not so much as a sideways glance, she continued on her way, feeling strange but better, like she just woke up from a pleasant dream.

However, like all pleasant dreams, this one turned to dust by the time she rounded a corner. An old Bentley with impossible speed parked beside her, and a familiar-looking man wearing sunglasses leaned out the window. When he whipped them off and yellow eyes stared back, the wind was knocked out of Marissa as her time spent in the bookshop flooded her mind.

She should have been wary, but when the man who finally introduced himself as ‘Crowley’ opened the car door for her, offering her a lift and an explanation in exchange for holy water, it seemed perfectly normal. Crowley felt a little bad about using his demonic powers on this poor kid. Yet Aziraphale would never need to know, and he could stay with and terrorize his plants with some peace of mind. If he was being honest, though, which he hardly ever was, the idea for procuring more holy water was a ruse. The demon was nostalgic for old times. His friend had been acting funny lately, coming up with lame, book-related excuses why he couldn’t meet up. Since their celebratory dinner at the Ritz, the angel’s inner bastard gradually took over his usual disposition, at least when Crowley was present. 

Well, if the angel didn’t want him as a friend anymore, that was his loss. He’d make new ones.


End file.
